4 things to know about Daylight Saving Time

Staff report

Saturday

Nov 3, 2018 at 12:00 PMNov 3, 2018 at 12:07 PM

It's time to fall back!

The sun will set at 4:35 p.m. Sunday, which may seem early, but that’s because Daylight Saving Time will have begun after 1:59 a.m. when we "fell back." So instead of turning to 2 a.m., it will go back to 1 a.m. Because humans can do that sort of thing! Here are some things you may not already know about why we mess around with the clock.

1 Daylight Saving Time?

Daylight Saving Time marks the time between when we move our clocks ahead one hour in March and back again one hour in November.

When it is not Daylight Saving Time, it is standard time.

And just a note, it is Daylight Saving Time, not Daylight Savings Time.

In 2018, Daylight Saving Time started March 11 and ends Sunday, Nov. 4, at 2 a.m., when we “fall back.”

2 Who participates and when?

There are two states and five territories in the United States that do not observe Daylight Saving Time. Those are Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the Virgin Islands and American Samoa.

More than 70 countries mark Daylight Saving Time.

3 What to do with that 'extra' hour

Assuming you go to bed at your normal time, you can sleep an extra hour, although the sun rises at 6:22 a.m. instead of 7:20-something so you may get up early anyway. You can catch up on an episode of your favorite TV show. You can volunteer at a soup kitchen. You can bake a pie for Thanksgiving and freeze it.

But you'll probably spend the hour running around the house and your car trying to remember how to change the clocks!

4 Check your batteries

“This weekend, as you change your clocks, check your alarms,” State Fire Marshal Peter Ostroskey said in a press release last year. “Prevent that annoying chirp of a dying smoke alarm battery by replacing the alkaline batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms now, unless you have newer alarms with 10-year sealed batteries.”

Smoke alarms need to be replaced every 10 years, according to Ostroskey. Carbon monoxide alarms need to be replaced every five to seven years.

Seniors who need help testing, maintaining or replacing smoke alarms should contact their local fire department or senior center for assistance.

SOURCES: The Old Farmer's Almanac; State Sen. Eileen Donoghue’s Office and AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety